COLUMBIA, S.C. — Back to school season is here and for some it came quicker than others. Thousands of students will head back to class this week.
“That gives us the opportunity to kind of close that gap of summer loss because it hasn't been too long since kids were out for school,” Tony Hemingway said.
Dr. Hemingway is the superintendent for Fairfield County School District, one of the 71 school districts in the state that are set to begin school before the third week of August.
“When you start later what tends to happen is when it comes to those exams that take place at the end of the semester, you have all this instructional time and all these lessons that happened in December, you go on Christmas break for two weeks, then come back and you have exams. So that's just a lot of time that provides a gap where you can have information forgotten you can have concepts that have not been thoroughly covered that you may need to revisit when kids returned before taking that exam,” he said.
According to South Carolina law, the first day of school should be no earlier than the third Monday in August, which is August 19th this year.
But districts can go back earlier by adopting what’s known as a “year-round modified school calendar.” This does not mean they are in school year-round but allows districts more flexibility in the schedule. These districts are still required to provide the mandatory 180 days of instruction as required by law.
“What we're trying to impact is just making sure that our students are prepared and focus on positive outcomes for them. If we have that time where we can get these skills in, get the lessons and the standards taught with an absolute, first semester, then a definite second semester that just gives us more opportunity to recognize any gaps that are existing so that we can address them within the semester," Dr. Hemingway said.
The number of schools participating in this modified schedule has increased. Last year roughly 60 school districts in the state started before the third Monday in August and the year before it was only about 20.
"We have seen an increase, especially this year, districts around the state popping off different weeks, different times, starting as early as mid July,” Sherry East said.
East is the president of the South Carolina Education Association, she says these new calendars can cause new students to play catch up.
“If you've moved from a district that starts the normal third week of August, then you've missed a month of school. If you have a student who lived in Horry County or Charleston that started the traditional third week of August, then and you move to one of these areas that has been in school for a month, then the student's going to play catch up,” she said.
Only two districts, Horry and Jasper, will not be starting school before the third week of August this year. East says the lack of tourism dollars might be the reason.
“It was an issue for them to start school so early. they didn't have workers. you know, the students, the high school students and teachers that were workers during the off season of teaching, they didn't have any help, like they didn't have anybody to work all your service industries. and also that families weren't taking vacations in august anymore because everybody was back in school. so they actually tied it to, dollars to money to tax income to revenue for our state,”
Lexington, Kershaw, Fairfield, Sumter, Saluda, and Lee counties are set to start school this week.